Chapter 03

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- Søren Kierkegaard

A loud, crashing sound woke Dalnim from her sleep. Her eyes fluttered open and the stench of smoke and alcohol hit her immediately. With a still clouded mind, she rolled to her side, away from the warmth that held tightly onto her.

Judging by the sunlight seeping into the room, it was around 5 in the afternoon.

Now a loud knocking was reaching her muffled ears and, with a loud groan, she sat up and flapped the blanket off of her.

“What the , Hoseok?” she groaned sleepily, fixing her tired eyes on the intruder.

A wide, boyish grin stretched on his lips and he clicked his tongue.

“Looks like you had one hell of a night, huh?”

Dalnim looked down on herself. Only a thin, white half-buttoned shirt was covering her torso, revealing a lacy black bra underneath. Her eyes ran over the person sleeping next to her.

Jin, hugging a pillow replacing her body now, was shirtless and his hair stood in every direction. He was handsome, there was no denying that. But her heart stayed cold, despite the night they shared.

She threw her best friend a deadly glare.

„Shut up!“ she hissed, throwing her pillow at him.

He easily dodged as he hid behind the door. His face peeked from behind it.

„How about you wake up Sleeping Beauty?” he suggested, his chin jerking in Jin's direction. “Namjoon wants you down. Like, right now.“

With that he left, the trampling of his feet on the stairs echoing in her ears.

She quickly got out of the bed, picking up her scattered clothes as she made sure she didn't wake up Jin. That's how it always went.

Dalnim would be up first, making sure no hints of their adventurous nights remained before waking him up. She tip toed into the bathroom, changing into a whole different set of clothes after taking a brisk shower, tossing the shirt from before deep into the laundry basket.

As she returned into the room a moment later, she was surprised when she saw that Jin was already awake, sitting on the very edge of the mattress with the blanket still slung around his shoulders.

If she was living a different life, his appearance could have actually made her laugh. His face was all puffy, his lips swollen. As he blinked, one of his eyelids hung behind and his lips curled into an askew smile.

“Morning” he mumbled, his voice raspy from tiredness.

But she lived the life she did.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her face an expressionless mask.

“Namjoon wants us downstairs. Hurry.”

While slowly walking down the stairs, she took in the view on Seoul from the large, floor-to-ceiling windows lining the hallway. The sun was slowly getting ready to set, lingering over Han river and tinting the sky in a light shade of pink.

She can exactly remember when she came here. It was back when the place was still run by another generation of freelancers, how they liked to call themselves.

In fact, they were just common criminals, making money off of drug dealing, ion and assassination.

Nothing much has changed since they had taken care of their elders' heir, not one of the original members left. Except for the ion. They had their reason's for quitting to force women to degrade theirselves for money.

She sighed silently as she remembered how things used to be. Not that it was worse now; honestly speaking, things were better than ever. It was only that she saw them get arrested or killed one by one, until only Jin, Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok, and her remained.

Voices came from the living room. Loud cheers and someone cursing.

As she stepped through the doorway, Yoongi and Namjoon sat on the couch, balancing Playstation controllers on their knees. Hoseok was sprawled out on the floor in front of the TV, noisily commenting on every move the other two boys made.

Dalnim's eyes scanned the room. I'm going to smash their faces into the left overs, she thought angrily to her